Notes:* Sometimes a show sounds great until it’s on a stage and then it fails. (Explains a lot about SNL.)* “People know that you’ve had all this time to work on it…” Unlike improv, you have no excuse.* It’s hard to go in cold with no idea.

Sketches this week:

Mine (The Office Zoo): dad takes daughter to work for Take Your Child To Work Day, girl is annoyed that dad works at an office instead of like her friend’s mom who works at the zoo. He points out that his coworkers are like animals-sloth, kangaroo, birds, monkeys.

Commentary: really, really great, good pattern, great hits, good mashup. Work on different delivery system-dad and daughter are more grounded. Make it into a nature documentary with voiceover. “Sloth in its natural habitat.” Never really call out the unusual. If Dad ends up being an animal…put him in the sauce. He doesn’t get if dad is into it or not-I say yes. Experience it as dad/daughter as animals too. Escalation-can do more and push the limits. Emulate animals, animals become bigger than work life. (2 guys fight over donuts, start bumping heads, do stuff no people actually do.) Make it more like a zoo-after you earn it a little bit on the first 2q pages. The bird ladies should be pecking, and escalate. Have dad and daughter jump into the fight at the end. Zoo larger than work aspect. On third beat can go to 8-9-10 afterwards. Cute and tasteful!

Other classmates’ sketches:* One woman tech support-left all alone, a budding actress tries out different voices and personalities on the phone. Caught in performance-maybe not telegraph character and adjust to each pattern. Maybe mix up the characters or switch between calls and get confused. Should she have a stuffed animal to talk to? Curb the monologue between calls?

* Thrift Store of Abandoned Hopes and Dreams: (Haunted sweater) Go with one idea, like a sweater that talks back and personify it. “Idea nuggets, and then we work together. “ “Fertilize those nugs.”

* Pick Me Up Garbage Truck (depressed guy singing “Build Me Up Buttercup” as he hitches a garbage truck). Needs to find a pattern about the sad dude singing a happy song while sad. Dude climbs into garbage. Idea-nosey garbageman goes through your trash and knows you’ve had a breakup-not using condoms any more?

* Abduction Waiting Room-getting abducted by aliens is like the DMV. Unpleasant, but not how you thought it was going to be.

This week’s homework: Parody! Commercials, TV, music, celebrities, politics, historical events (inacurismos-like Lincoln as a bro). He mentions an Andy Samberg skit, Testicubes. “If you take out the testicles, it’d be a really good perfume ad.” NO grounded at all, whole world is into it. Get ideas from watching TV.